DVD rw drive not reading!!!!!!!!!!

[lostinla]

Help! Suddenly its reading nothing. I put in a music CD, blank CD to put
photos on. It reads nothing....
anyone out there know something I can do??
I have a laptop, when I put the Disc in, the little disc icon shows up for a
second on the mouse & disappears..
Help...thanks!!

 

[Malke]

Help! Suddenly its reading nothing. I put in a music CD, blank CD to put
photos on. It reads nothing....
anyone out there know something I can do??
I have a laptop, when I put the Disc in, the little disc icon shows up for
a second on the mouse & disappears..
Help...thanks!!

Boot with your Vista DVD or any other bootable disk such as a Linux Live CD
(Knoppix or Ubuntu) or even an XP install disk. Does the drive read any of
those disks? If not, the drive has died. Contact the laptop mftr.'s tech
support for repair/replacement.

Malke

 

[Nonny]

Boot with your Vista DVD or any other bootable disk such as a Linux Live CD
(Knoppix or Ubuntu) or even an XP install disk. Does the drive read any of
those disks? If not, the drive has died. Contact the laptop mftr.'s tech
support for repair/replacement.

You repair computers for a living. Would replacing a laptop optical
drive be a really expensive undertaking? More expensive than buying
an external USB drive?

 

[Malke]

You repair computers for a living. Would replacing a laptop optical
drive be a really expensive undertaking? More expensive than buying
an external USB drive?

It depends on the laptop and whether the mftr. still has replacement parts
for that model. Since the OP has Vista and Vista is still fairly new, more
than likely the replacement parts are available (and the laptop may still
be under warranty). The best solution would be to replace the part rather
than use an external USB drive. The data will not move nearly as quickly
(to be burned) over the USB bus as it will using the internal drive.

I had to buy a replacement optical drive from Dell for a laptop that was
more than several years old and IIRC it was around $50. External burners
from NewEgg start at about $55.

Malke

 

[Paul Montgomery]

It depends on the laptop and whether the mftr. still has replacement parts
for that model. Since the OP has Vista and Vista is still fairly new, more
than likely the replacement parts are available (and the laptop may still
be under warranty). The best solution would be to replace the part rather
than use an external USB drive. The data will not move nearly as quickly
(to be burned) over the USB bus as it will using the internal drive.

I had to buy a replacement optical drive from Dell for a laptop that was
more than several years old and IIRC it was around $50. External burners
from NewEgg start at about $55.

Ahh... but then the person would have to pay the technecian to install
the thing. I used to have a shop, and laptops were NOT on my list of
things I'd open up and work on.

Thanks.
(Nonny - unmasked)

 

[Malke]

Ahh... but then the person would have to pay the technecian to install
the thing. I used to have a shop, and laptops were NOT on my list of
things I'd open up and work on.

Well, that's you. I and many others have no problems working on laptops.
Besides, there's no need to pay anyone to install an optical drive. It is
generally very simple and all major computer mftrs. have instructions on
their websites. We don't know what brand laptop the OP has, but it takes
approximately 5-6 minutes to install an optical drive on a Dell, HP, or a
Thinkpad. This would not be difficult even for a non-tech.

Malke

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

It depends on the laptop and whether the mftr. still has replacement parts
for that model. Since the OP has Vista and Vista is still fairly new, more
than likely the replacement parts are available (and the laptop may still
be under warranty). The best solution would be to replace the part rather
than use an external USB drive. The data will not move nearly as quickly
(to be burned) over the USB bus as it will using the internal drive.

Another consideration is that a laptop is a device meant to carried
around. I personally would not want to have to deal with the extra
weight and space required to carry around an external optical drive
along with the laptop.

Even if it cost somewhat more, I'd opt to replace it, rather than use
an external drive.

 

[Ian D]

Another consideration is that a laptop is a device meant to carried
around. I personally would not want to have to deal with the extra
weight and space required to carry around an external optical drive
along with the laptop.

Even if it cost somewhat more, I'd opt to replace it, rather than use
an external drive.

Not to mention the extra battery drain due to the additional circuitry
involved in the external drive controller. Also, laptop optical
drive designs are usually optimized for lower power consumption.